China emerged as one of the world's earliest civilizations in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies, or dynasties, beginning with the semi-legendary Xia dynasty. Since then, China has then expanded, fractured, and re-unified numerous times. In 1912, the Republic of China (ROC) replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist People's Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the People's Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, while the ROC government retreated to Taiwan with its present de facto temporary capital in Taipei. Both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory.

The English word "China" is first attested in Richard Eden's 1555 translation[j] of the 1516 journal of the PortugueseexplorerDuarte Barbosa.[k][30] The Portuguese word was derived from PersianChīn (چین) and ultimately from SanskritCīna (चीन).[31] The earliest known example of Cīna being used to refer to China dates from AD 150.[32] In 1655, Martino Martini suggested that the word China is derived from the name of the Qin dynasty (221-206 BC).[33] Although Indian writers were not aware of China's existence prior to the first century BC,[34] the word Cīna appears in Mahābhārata, written in the 5th century BC, as well as in the Laws of Manu, which dates from the second century BC. The Cīna of the Indian epics was a state located to the east of India, possibly Yelang.[35]

The official name of the modern state is the "People's Republic of China" (Chinese: 中华人民共和国; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó). The shorter form is "China" Zhōngguó(中国), from zhōng ("central" or "middle") and guó ("state, nation-state"),[25][l] a term which developed under the ZhouDynasty in reference to its royal demesne.[m] It was then applied to the area around Luoyi (present-day Luoyang) during the Eastern Zhou and then to China's Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing.[37] It was often used as a cultural concept to distinguish the Huaxia tribes from perceived "barbarians"[37] and was the source of the English name "Middle Kingdom".[39][40] A more literary or inclusive name, alluding to the "land of Chinese civilization", is Zhōnghuá(中华).[41] It developed during the Wei and Jin dynasties as a contraction of "the central state of the Huaxia".[37] Before the PRC's establishment, the proposed name of the country was the People's Democratic Republic of China (simplified Chinese: 中华人民民主共和国; traditional Chinese: 中華人民民主共和國; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Rénmín Mínzhǔ Gònghéguó) during the first CPPCC held on 15 June 1949.[42][43] During the 1950s and 1960s, after the defeat of the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War, it was also referred to as "Communist China" or "Red China", to be differentiated from "Nationalist China" or "Free China".[44]

Early dynastic rule

According to Chinese tradition, the first dynasty was the Xia, which emerged around 2100 BCE.[51] The dynasty was considered mythical by historians until scientific excavations found early Bronze Age sites at Erlitou, Henan in 1959.[52] It remains unclear whether these sites are the remains of the Xia dynasty or of another culture from the same period.[53] The succeeding Shang dynasty is the earliest to be confirmed by contemporary records.[54] The Shang ruled the plain of the Yellow River in eastern China from the 17th to the 11th century BCE.[55] Their oracle bone script (from c. 1500BCE)[56][57] represents the oldest form of Chinese writing yet found,[58] and is a direct ancestor of modern Chinese characters.[59]

The Shang were conquered by the Zhou, who ruled between the 11th and 5th centuries BCE, though centralized authority was slowly eroded by feudal warlords. Many independent states eventually emerged from the weakened Zhou state and continually waged war with each other in the 300-year Spring and Autumn period, only occasionally deferring to the Zhou king. By the time of the Warring States period of the 5th–3rd centuries BCE, there were seven powerful sovereign states in what is now China, each with its own king, ministry and army.

Under the succeeding Tang and Song dynasties, Chinese economy, technology, and culture entered a golden age.[69] The Tang Empire returned control of the Western Regions and the Silk Road,[70] and made the capital Chang'an a cosmopolitan urban center. However, it was devastated and weakened by the An Shi Rebellion in the 8th century.[71] In 907, the Tang disintegrated completely when the local military governors became ungovernable. The Song Dynasty ended the separatist situation in 960, leading to a balance of power between the Song and Khitan Liao. The Song was the first government in world history to issue paper money and the first Chinese polity to establish a permanent standing navy which was supported by the developed shipbuilding industry along with the sea trade.[72] Between the 10th and 11th centuries, the population of China doubled in size to around 100 million people, mostly because of the expansion of rice cultivation in central and southern China, and the production of abundant food surpluses. The Song dynasty also saw a revival of Confucianism, in response to the growth of Buddhism during the Tang,[73] and a flourishing of philosophy and the arts, as landscape art and porcelain were brought to new levels of maturity and complexity.[74][75] However, the military weakness of the Song army was observed by the JurchenJin dynasty. In 1127, Emperor Huizong of Song and the capital Bianjing were captured during the Jin–Song Wars. The remnants of the Song retreated to southern China.[76]

In 1644, Beijing was captured by a coalition of peasant rebel forces led by Li Zicheng. The last Ming Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide when the city fell. The Manchu Qing dynasty, then allied with Ming dynasty general Wu Sangui, overthrew Li's short-lived Shun dynasty and subsequently seized control of Beijing, which became the new capital of the Qing dynasty.

The Qing dynasty also began experiencing internal unrest in which tens of millions of people died, especially in the failed Taiping Rebellion that ravaged southern China in the 1850s and 1860s and the Dungan Revolt (1862–77) in the northwest. The initial success of the Self-Strengthening Movement of the 1860s was frustrated by a series of military defeats in the 1880s and 1890s.

On 1 January 1912, the Republic of China was established, and Sun Yat-sen of the Kuomintang (the KMT or Nationalist Party) was proclaimed provisional president.[88] However, the presidency was later given to Yuan Shikai, a former Qing general who in 1915 proclaimed himself Emperor of China. In the face of popular condemnation and opposition from his own Beiyang Army, he was forced to abdicate and re-establish the republic.[89]

After Yuan Shikai's death in 1916, China was politically fragmented. Its Beijing-based government was internationally recognized but virtually powerless; regional warlords controlled most of its territory.[90][91] In the late 1920s, the Kuomintang, under Chiang Kai-shek, the then Principal of the Republic of China Military Academy, was able to reunify the country under its own control with a series of deft military and political manoeuvrings, known collectively as the Northern Expedition.[92][93] The Kuomintang moved the nation's capital to Nanjing and implemented "political tutelage", an intermediate stage of political development outlined in Sun Yat-sen's San-min program for transforming China into a modern democratic state.[94][95] The political division in China made it difficult for Chiang to battle the Communist, People's Liberation Army (PLA) against whom the Kuomintang had been warring since 1927 in the Chinese Civil War. This war continued successfully for the Kuomintang, especially after the PLA retreated in the Long March, until Japanese aggression and the 1936 Xi'an Incident forced Chiang to confront Imperial Japan.[96]

The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), a theater of World War II, forced an uneasy alliance between the Kuomintang and the PLA. Japanese forces committed numerous war atrocities against the civilian population; in all, as many as 20 million Chinese civilians died.[97] An estimated 200,000 Chinese were massacred in the city of Nanjing alone during the Japanese occupation.[98] During the war, China, along with the UK, the US and the Soviet Union, were referred to as "trusteeship of the powerful"[99] and were recognized as the Allied "Big Four" in the Declaration by United Nations.[100][101] Along with the other three great powers, China was one of the four major Allies of World War II, and was later considered one of the primary victors in the war.[102][103] After the surrender of Japan in 1945, Taiwan, including the Pescadores, was returned to Chinese control. China emerged victorious but war-ravaged and financially drained. The continued distrust between the Kuomintang and the Communists led to the resumption of civil war. Constitutional rule was established in 1947, but because of the ongoing unrest, many provisions of the ROC constitution were never implemented in mainland China.[104]

The regime consolidated its popularity among the peasants through land reform, which saw between 1 and 2 million landlords executed.[109] Under its leadership, China developed an independent industrial system and its own nuclear weapons.[110] The Chinese population almost doubled from around 550 million to over 900 million.[111] However, the Great Leap Forward, a large-scale economic and social reform project, resulted in an estimated 45 million deaths between 1958 and 1961, mostly from starvation.[112] In 1966, Mao and his allies launched the Cultural Revolution, sparking a decade of political recrimination and social upheaval which lasted until Mao's death in 1976. In October 1971, the PRC replaced the Republic of China in the United Nations, and took its seat as a permanent member of the Security Council.[113]

Political geography

The People's Republic of China is the second-largest country in the world by land area[133] after Russia, and is either the third- or fourth-largest by total area, after Russia, Canada and, depending on the definition of total area, the United States.[o] China's total area is generally stated as being approximately 9,600,000 km2 (3,700,000 sq mi).[134] Specific area figures range from 9,572,900 km2 (3,696,100 sq mi) according to the Encyclopædia Britannica,[135] 9,596,961 km2 (3,705,407 sq mi) according to the UN Demographic Yearbook,[7] to 9,596,961 km2 (3,705,407 sq mi) according to the CIA World Factbook.[9]

China's climate is mainly dominated by dry seasons and wet monsoons, which lead to pronounced temperature differences between winter and summer. In the winter, northern winds coming from high-latitude areas are cold and dry; in summer, southern winds from coastal areas at lower latitudes are warm and moist.[139] The climate in China differs from region to region because of the country's highly complex topography.

A major environmental issue in China is the continued expansion of its deserts, particularly the Gobi Desert.[140][141] Although barrier tree lines planted since the 1970s have reduced the frequency of sandstorms, prolonged drought and poor agricultural practices have resulted in dust storms plaguing northern China each spring, which then spread to other parts of east Asia, including Korea and Japan. China's environmental watchdog, SEPA, stated in 2007 that China is losing 4,000 km2 (1,500 sq mi) per year to desertification.[142] Water quality, erosion, and pollution control have become important issues in China's relations with other countries. Melting glaciers in the Himalayas could potentially lead to water shortages for hundreds of millions of people.[143]

China has over 32,000 species of vascular plants,[154] and is home to a variety of forest types. Cold coniferous forests predominate in the north of the country, supporting animal species such as moose and Asian black bear, along with over 120 bird species.[155] The understorey of moist conifer forests may contain thickets of bamboo. In higher montane stands of juniper and yew, the bamboo is replaced by rhododendrons. Subtropical forests, which are predominate in central and southern China, support as many as 146,000 species of flora.[155] Tropical and seasonal rainforests, though confined to Yunnan and Hainan Island, contain a quarter of all the animal and plant species found in China.[155] China has over 10,000 recorded species of fungi,[156] and of them, nearly 6,000 are higher fungi.[157]

Environmental issues

In recent decades, China has suffered from severe environmental deterioration and pollution.[158][159] While regulations such as the 1979 Environmental Protection Law are fairly stringent, they are poorly enforced, as they are frequently disregarded by local communities and government officials in favor of rapid economic development.[160] Urban air pollution is a severe health issue in the country; the World Bank estimated in 2013 that 16 of the world's 20 most-polluted cities are located in China.[161] China is the world's largest carbon dioxide emitter.[162] The country also has significant water pollution problems: 40% of China's rivers had been polluted by industrial and agricultural waste by late 2011.[163] In 2014, the internal freshwater resources per capita of China reduced to 2,062m3, and it was below 500m3 in the North China Plain, while 5,920m3 in the world.[164][165][166]

However, China is the world's leading investor in renewable energy commercialization, with $52 billion invested in 2011 alone;[167][168][169] it is a major manufacturer of renewable energy technologies and invests heavily in local-scale renewable energy projects.[170][171] By 2009, over 17% of China's energy was derived from renewable sources – most notably hydroelectric power plants, of which China has a total installed capacity of 197 GW.[172] In 2011, the Chinese government announced plans to invest four trillion yuan (US$619 billion) in water infrastructure and desalination projects over a ten-year period, and to complete construction of a flood prevention and anti-drought system by 2020.[165][173] In 2013, China began a five-year, US$277 billion effort to reduce air pollution, particularly in the north of the country.[174]

There have been some moves toward political liberalization, in that open contested elections are now held at the village and town levels.[186][187] However, the Party retains effective control over government appointments: in the absence of meaningful opposition, the CPC wins by default most of the time. Political concerns in China include the growing gap between rich and poor and government corruption.[188][189] Nonetheless, the level of public support for the government and its management of the nation is high, with 80–95% of Chinese citizens expressing satisfaction with the central government, according to a 2011 survey.[190]

China considers Taiwan to be its 23rd province, although Taiwan is governed by the Republic of China, which disputes the PRC's claim.[191] None of the divisions are recognized by the ROC government, which claims the entirety of the PRC's territory.

Under its interpretation of the One-China policy, Beijing has made it a precondition to establishing diplomatic relations that the other country acknowledges its claim to Taiwan and severs official ties with the government of the Republic of China. Chinese officials have protested on numerous occasions when foreign countries have made diplomatic overtures to Taiwan,[195] especially in the matter of armament sales.[196]

Much of current Chinese foreign policy is reportedly based on Premier Zhou Enlai's Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and is also driven by the concept of "harmony without uniformity", which encourages diplomatic relations between states despite ideological differences.[197] This policy may have led China to support states that are regarded as dangerous or repressive by Western nations, such as Zimbabwe, North Korea and Iran.[198] China has a close economic and military relationship with Russia,[199] and the two states often vote in unison in the UN Security Council.[200][201][202]

Trade relations

In recent decades, China has played an increasing role in calling for free trade areas and security pacts amongst its Asia-Pacific neighbours. China became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 11 December 2001. In 2004, it proposed an entirely new East Asia Summit (EAS) framework as a forum for regional security issues.[203] The EAS, which includes ASEAN Plus Three, India, Australia and New Zealand, held its inaugural summit in 2005. China is also a founding member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), along with Russia and the Central Asian republics.

In 2000, the United States Congress approved "permanent normal trade relations" (PNTR) with China, allowing Chinese exports in at the same low tariffs as goods from most other countries.[204] China has a significant trade surplus with the United States, its most important export market.[205] In the early 2010s, US politicians argued that the Chinese yuan was significantly undervalued, giving China an unfair trade advantage.[206][207][208] In recent decades, China has followed a policy of engaging with African nations for trade and bilateral co-operation;[209][210][211] in 2012, Sino-African trade totalled over US$160 billion.[212] China has furthermore strengthened its ties with major South American economies, becoming the largest trading partner of Brazil and building strategic links with Argentina.[213][214]

In addition to Taiwan, China is also involved in other international territorial disputes. Since the 1990s, China has been involved in negotiations to resolve its disputed land borders, including a disputed border with India and an undefined border with Bhutan. China is additionally involved in multilateral disputes over the ownership of several small islands in the East and South China Seas, such as the Senkaku Islands and the Scarborough Shoal.[216][217] On 21 May 2014 Xi Jinping, speaking at a conference in Shanghai, pledged to settle China's territorial disputes peacefully. "China stays committed to seeking peaceful settlement of disputes with other countries over territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests", he said.[218]

Emerging superpower status

China is regularly hailed as a potential new superpower, with certain commentators citing its rapid economic progress, growing military might, very large population, and increasing international influence as signs that it will play a prominent global role in the 21st century.[20][219] Others, however, warn that economic bubbles and demographic imbalances could slow or even halt China's growth as the century progresses.[220][221] Some authors also question the definition of "superpower", arguing that China's large economy alone would not qualify it as a superpower, and noting that it lacks the military power and cultural influence of the United States.[222]

Rural migrants to China's cities often find themselves treated as second-class citizens by the hukouhousehold registration system, which controls access to state benefits.[230][231] Property rights are often poorly protected,[230] and taxation disproportionately affects poorer citizens.[231] However, a number of rural taxes have been reduced or abolished since the early 2000s, and additional social services provided to rural dwellers.[232][233]

The Chinese government has responded to foreign criticism by arguing that the right to subsistence and economic development is a prerequisite to other types of human rights, and that the notion of human rights should take into account a country's present level of economic development.[243] It emphasizes the rise in the Chinese standard of living, literacy rate and average life expectancy since the 1970s, as well as improvements in workplace safety and efforts to combat natural disasters such as the perennial Yangtze River floods.[243][244][245] Furthermore, some Chinese politicians have spoken out in support of democratization, although others remain more conservative.[246] Some major reform efforts have been conducted; for an instance in November 2013, the government announced plans to relax the one-child policy and abolish the much-criticized re-education through labour program,[132] though human rights groups note that reforms to the latter have been largely cosmetic.[239] During the 2000s and early 2010s, the Chinese government was increasingly tolerant of NGOs that offer practical, efficient solutions to social problems, but such "third sector" activity remained heavily regulated.[247][248]

Since economic liberalization began in 1978, China has been among the world's fastest-growing economies,[283] relying largely on investment- and export-led growth.[284] According to the IMF, China's annual average GDP growth between 2001 and 2010 was 10.5%. Between 2007 and 2011, China's economic growth rate was equivalent to all of the G7 countries' growth combined.[285] According to the Global Growth Generators index announced by Citigroup in February 2011, China has a very high 3G growth rating.[286] Its high productivity, low labor costs and relatively good infrastructure have made it a global leader in manufacturing. However, the Chinese economy is highly energy-intensive and inefficient;[287] China became the world's largest energy consumer in 2010,[288] relies on coal to supply over 70% of its energy needs, and surpassed the US to become the world's largest oil importer in September 2013.[289][290] In the early 2010s, China's economic growth rate began to slow amid domestic credit troubles, weakening international demand for Chinese exports and fragility in the global economy.[291][292][293]

In the online realm, China's e-commerce industry has grown more slowly than the EU and the US, with a significant period of development occurring from around 2009 onwards. According to Credit Suisse, the total value of online transactions in China grew from an insignificant size in 2008 to around RMB 4 trillion (US$660 billion) in 2012. The Chinese online payment market is dominated by major firms such as Alipay, Tenpay and China UnionPay.[294]

China in the global economy

China is a member of the WTO and is the world's largest trading power, with a total international trade value of US$3.87 trillion in 2012.[21]Its foreign exchange reserves reached US$2.85 trillion by the end of 2010, an increase of 18.7% over the previous year, making its reserves by far the world's largest.[295][296] In 2012, China was the world's largest recipient of inward foreign direct investment (FDI), attracting $253 billion.[297] In 2014, China's foreign exchange remittances were $US64 billion making it the second largest recipient of remittances in the world.[298] China also invests abroad, with a total outward FDI of $62.4 billion in 2012,[297] and a number of major takeovers of foreign firms by Chinese companies.[299] In 2009, China owned an estimated $1.6 trillion of US securities,[300] and was also the largest foreign holder of US public debt, owning over $1.16 trillion in US Treasury bonds.[301][302] China's undervalued exchange rate has caused friction with other major economies,[207][303][304] and it has also been widely criticized for manufacturing large quantities of counterfeit goods.[305][306] According to consulting firm McKinsey, total outstanding debt in China increased from $7.4 trillion in 2007 to $28.2 trillion in 2014, which reflects 228% of China's GDP.[307] In 2017 the Institute of International Finance reported that China's debt had reached 304% of its GDP.[308]

Graph comparing the 2014 nominal GDPs
of major economies in US$ billions (IMF)[309]

Class and income equality

China's middle-class population (if defined as those with annual income of between US$10,000 and US$60,000) had reached more than 300 million by 2012.[314] According to the Hurun Report, the number of US dollar billionaires in China increased from 130 in 2009 to 251 in 2012, giving China the world's second-highest number of billionaires.[315][316] China's domestic retail market was worth over 20 trillion yuan (US$3.2 trillion) in 2012[317] and is growing at over 12% annually as of 2013[update],[318] while the country's luxury goods market has expanded immensely, with 27.5% of the global share.[319] However, in recent years, China's rapid economic growth has contributed to severe consumer inflation,[320][321] leading to increased government regulation.[322] China has a high level of economic inequality,[323] which has increased in the past few decades.[324] In 2012, China's official Gini coefficient was 0.474.[325] A study conducted by Southwestern University of Finance and Economics showed that China’s Gini coefficient actually had reached 0.61 in 2012, and top 1% Chinese held more than 25% of China’s wealth.[326]

Internationalization of the renminbi

Following the 2008 global financial crisis, China realized the dependency on the US Dollar and the weakness of the international monetary system.[327] The RMB Internationalization accelerated in 2009 when China established dim sum bond market and expanded the Cross-Border Trade RMB Settlement Pilot Project, which helps establish pools of offshore RMB liquidity.[328][329] In November 2010, Russia began using the Chinese renminbi in its bilateral trade with China.[330] This was soon followed by Japan,[331]Australia,[332]Singapore,[333] the United Kingdom,[334] and Canada.[335] As a result of the rapid internationalization of the renminbi, it became the eighth-most-traded currency in the world in 2013.[336]

After repeated military defeats by Western nations in the 19th century, Chinese reformers began promoting modern science and technology as part of the Self-Strengthening Movement. After the Communists came to power in 1949, efforts were made to organize science and technology based on the model of the Soviet Union, in which scientific research was part of central planning.[341] After Mao's death in 1976, science and technology was established as one of the Four Modernizations,[342] and the Soviet-inspired academic system was gradually reformed.[343]

Modern era

Since the end of the Cultural Revolution, China has made significant investments in scientific research,[344] with $163 billion spent on scientific research and development in 2012.[345] Science and technology are seen as vital for achieving China's economic and political goals, and are held as a source of national pride to a degree sometimes described as "techno-nationalism".[346] Nonetheless, China's investment in basic and applied scientific research remains behind that of leading technological powers such as the United States and Japan.[344][345] Chinese-born scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Physics four times, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Physiology or Medicine once respectively, though most of these scientists conducted their Nobel-winning research in western nations.[q]

China is developing its education system with an emphasis on science, mathematics and engineering; in 2009, China graduated over 10,000 Ph.D. engineers, and as many as 500,000 BSc graduates, more than any other country.[352] China is also the world's second-largest publisher of scientific papers, producing 121,500 in 2010 alone, including 5,200 in leading international scientific journals.[353] Chinese technology companies such as Huawei and Lenovo have become world leaders in telecommunications and personal computing,[354][355][356] and Chinese supercomputers are consistently ranked among the world's most powerful.[357][358] China is also expanding its use of industrial robots; from 2008 to 2011, the installation of multi-role robots in Chinese factories rose by 136 percent.[359]

Infrastructure

Telecommunications

China currently has the largest number of active cellphones of any country in the world, with over 1 billion users by February 2012.[365] It also has the world's largest number of internet and broadband users,[366] with over 688 million internet users as of 2016[update], equivalent to around half of its population.[367] The national average broadband connection speed is 9.46 Mbit/s, ranking China 91st in the world in terms of internet speed.[367] As of July 2013, China accounts for 24% of the world's internet-connected devices.[368] Since 2011 China is the nation with the most installed telecommunication bandwidth in the world. By 2014, China hosts more than twice as much national bandwidth potential than the U.S., the historical leader in terms of installed telecommunication bandwidth (China: 29% versus US:13% of the global total).[369]

China Telecom and China Unicom, the world's two largest broadband providers, accounted for 20% of global broadband subscribers. China Telecom alone serves more than 50 million broadband subscribers, while China Unicom serves more than 40 million.[370] Several Chinese telecommunications companies, most notably Huawei and ZTE, have been accused of spying for the Chinese military.[371]

China is developing its own satellite navigation system, dubbed Beidou, which began offering commercial navigation services across Asia in 2012,[372] and is planned to offer global coverage by 2020.[373]

Transport

Since the late 1990s, China's national road network has been significantly expanded through the creation of a network of national highways and expressways. In 2011 China's highways had reached a total length of 85,000 km (53,000 mi), making it the longest highway system in the world.[374] In 1991, there were only six bridges across the main stretch of the Yangtze River, which bisects the country into northern and southern halves. By October 2014, there were 81 such bridges and tunnels.

China has the world's largest market for automobiles, having surpassed the United States in both auto sales and production. Auto sales in 2009 exceeded 13.6 million[375] and may reach 40 million by 2020.[376] A side-effect of the rapid growth of China's road network has been a significant rise in traffic accidents,[377] with poorly enforced traffic laws cited as a possible cause—in 2011 alone, around 62,000 Chinese died in road accidents.[378] In urban areas, bicycles remain a common mode of transport, despite the increasing prevalence of automobiles – as of 2012[update], there are approximately 470 million bicycles in China.[379]

Demographics

A 2009 population density map of the People's Republic of China. The eastern coastal provinces are much more densely populated than the western interior

The national census of 2010 recorded the population of the People's Republic of China as approximately 1,370,536,875. About 16.60% of the population were 14 years old or younger, 70.14% were between 15 and 59 years old, and 13.26% were over 60 years old.[398] The population growth rate for 2013 is estimated to be 0.46%.[399]

Although a middle-income country by Western standards, China's rapid growth has pulled hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty since 1978. Today, about 10% of the Chinese population lives below the poverty line of US$1 per day, down from 64% in 1978. In 2014, the urban unemployment rate of China was about 4.1%.[400][401]

With a population of over 1.3 billion and dwindling natural resources, the government of China is very concerned about its population growth rate and has attempted since 1979, with mixed results,[402] to implement a strict family planning policy, known as the "one-child policy." Before 2013, this policy sought to restrict families to one child each, with exceptions for ethnic minorities and a degree of flexibility in rural areas. A major loosening of the policy was enacted in December 2013, allowing families to have two children if one parent is an only child.[403] In 2016, the one-child policy was replaced in favor of a two-child policy.[404] Data from the 2010 census implies that the total fertility rate may be around 1.4.[405]

The policy, along with traditional preference for boys, may be contributing to an imbalance in the sex ratio at birth.[406][407] According to the 2010 census, the sex ratio at birth was 118.06 boys for every 100 girls,[408] which is beyond the normal range of around 105 boys for every 100 girls.[409] The 2010 census found that males accounted for 51.27 percent of the total population.[408] However, China's sex ratio is more balanced than it was in 1953, when males accounted for 51.82 percent of the total population.[408]

Ethnic groups

China officially recognizes 56 distinct ethnic groups, the largest of which are the Han Chinese, who constitute about 91.51% of the total population.[11] The Han Chinese – the world's largest single ethnic group[410] – outnumber other ethnic groups in every provincial-level division except Tibet and Xinjiang.[411] Ethnic minorities account for about 8.49% of the population of China, according to the 2010 census.[11] Compared with the 2000 population census, the Han population increased by 66,537,177 persons, or 5.74%, while the population of the 55 national minorities combined increased by 7,362,627 persons, or 6.92%.[11] The 2010 census recorded a total of 593,832 foreign citizens living in China. The largest such groups were from South Korea (120,750), the United States (71,493) and Japan (66,159).[412]

Urbanization

China has urbanized significantly in recent decades. The percent of the country's population living in urban areas increased from 20% in 1980 to over 50% in 2014.[417][418][419] It is estimated that China's urban population will reach one billion by 2030, potentially equivalent to one-eighth of the world population.[417][418] As of 2012[update], there are more than 262 million migrant workers in China, mostly rural migrants seeking work in cities.[420]

China has over 160 cities with a population of over one million,[421] including the seven megacities (cities with a population of over 10 million) of Chongqing, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Shenzhen, and Wuhan.[422][423][424] By 2025, it is estimated that the country will be home to 221 cities with over a million inhabitants.[417] The figures in the table below are from the 2010 census,[4] and are only estimates of the urban populations within administrative city limits; a different ranking exists when considering the total municipal populations (which includes suburban and rural populations). The large "floating populations" of migrant workers make conducting censuses in urban areas difficult;[425] the figures below include only long-term residents.

Education

Since 1986, compulsory education in China comprises primary and junior secondary school, which together last for nine years.[427] In 2010, about 82.5 percent of students continued their education at a three-year senior secondary school.[428] The Gaokao, China's national university entrance exam, is a prerequisite for entrance into most higher education institutions. In 2010, 27 percent of secondary school graduates are enrolled in higher education.[429] Vocational education is available to students at the secondary and tertiary level.[430]

In February 2006, the government pledged to provide completely free nine-year education, including textbooks and fees.[431] Annual education investment went from less than US$50 billion in 2003 to more than US$250 billion in 2011.[432] However, there remains an inequality in education spending. In 2010, the annual education expenditure per secondary school student in Beijing totalled ¥20,023, while in Guizhou, one of the poorest provinces in China, only totalled ¥3,204.[433] Free compulsory education in China consists of primary school and junior secondary school between the ages of 6 and 15. In 2011, around 81.4% of Chinese have received secondary education.[434] By 2007, there were 396,567 primary schools, 94,116 secondary schools, and 2,236 higher education institutions in China.[435]

As of 2010[update], 94% of the population over age 15 are literate,[436] compared to only 20% in 1950.[437] In 2009, Chinese students from Shanghai achieved the world's best results in mathematics, science and literacy, as tested by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a worldwide evaluation of 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance.[438] Despite the high results, Chinese education has also faced both native and international criticism for its emphasis on rote memorization and its gap in quality from rural to urban areas.

Health

The National Health and Family Planning Commission, together with its counterparts in the local commissions, oversees the health needs of the Chinese population.[439] An emphasis on public health and preventive medicine has characterized Chinese health policy since the early 1950s. At that time, the Communist Party started the Patriotic Health Campaign, which was aimed at improving sanitation and hygiene, as well as treating and preventing several diseases. Diseases such as cholera, typhoid and scarlet fever, which were previously rife in China, were nearly eradicated by the campaign. After Deng Xiaoping began instituting economic reforms in 1978, the health of the Chinese public improved rapidly because of better nutrition, although many of the free public health services provided in the countryside disappeared along with the People's Communes. Healthcare in China became mostly privatized, and experienced a significant rise in quality. In 2009, the government began a 3-year large-scale healthcare provision initiative worth US$124 billion.[440] By 2011, the campaign resulted in 95% of China's population having basic health insurance coverage.[441] In 2011, China was estimated to be the world's third-largest supplier of pharmaceuticals, but its population has suffered from the development and distribution of counterfeit medications.[442]

As of 2012[update], the average life expectancy at birth in China is 75 years,[443] and the infant mortality rate is 12 per thousand.[444] Both have improved significantly since the 1950s.[r] Rates of stunting, a condition caused by malnutrition, have declined from 33.1% in 1990 to 9.9% in 2010.[447] Despite significant improvements in health and the construction of advanced medical facilities, China has several emerging public health problems, such as respiratory illnesses caused by widespread air pollution,[448] hundreds of millions of cigarette smokers,[449] and an increase in obesity among urban youths.[450][451] China's large population and densely populated cities have led to serious disease outbreaks in recent years, such as the 2003 outbreak of SARS, although this has since been largely contained.[452] In 2010, air pollution caused 1.2 million premature deaths in China.[453]

Clear data on religious affiliation in China is difficult to gather due to varying definitions on "religion" and the unorganized nature of Chinese religious traditions. Scholars note that in China there is no clear boundary between religions, especially Buddhism, Taoism and local folk religious practice.[456] A 2015 poll conducted by Gallup International found that 61% of Chinese people self-identified as "convinced atheist".[463] According to a 2014 study, approximately 74% are either nonreligious or follow Chinese folk religion, 16% are Buddhists, 2% are Christians, and 1% are Muslims.[464][465] In addition to Han people's local religious practices, there are also various ethnic minority groups in China who maintain their traditional autochthone religions. Various sects of indigenous origin comprise 2—3% of the population, while Confucianism as a religious self-designation is popular among intellectuals. Significant faiths specifically connected to certain ethnic groups include Tibetan Buddhism and the Islamic religion of the Hui and Uyghur peoples.

Temple of the Great Buddha in Midong, Urumqi, Xinjiang. China has many of the tallest statues in the world, and most of them represent deities and buddhas.

Since ancient times, Chinese culture has been heavily influenced by Confucianism and conservative philosophies. For much of the country's dynastic era, opportunities for social advancement could be provided by high performance in the prestigious imperial examinations, which have their origins in the Han Dynasty.[468] The literary emphasis of the exams affected the general perception of cultural refinement in China, such as the belief that calligraphy, poetry and painting were higher forms of art than dancing or drama. Chinese culture has long emphasized a sense of deep history and a largely inward-looking national perspective.[20] Examinations and a culture of merit remain greatly valued in China today.[469]

The first leaders of the People's Republic of China were born into the traditional imperial order, but were influenced by the May Fourth Movement and reformist ideals. They sought to change some traditional aspects of Chinese culture, such as rural land tenure, sexism, and the Confucian system of education, while preserving others, such as the family structure and culture of obedience to the state. Some observers see the period following the establishment of the PRC in 1949 as a continuation of traditional Chinese dynastic history, while others claim that the Communist Party's rule has damaged the foundations of Chinese culture, especially through political movements such as the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, where many aspects of traditional culture were destroyed, having been denounced as "regressive and harmful" or "vestiges of feudalism". Many important aspects of traditional Chinese morals and culture, such as Confucianism, art, literature, and performing arts like Peking opera,[470] were altered to conform to government policies and propaganda at the time. Access to foreign media remains heavily restricted.[471]

Today, the Chinese government has accepted numerous elements of traditional Chinese culture as being integral to Chinese society. With the rise of Chinese nationalism and the end of the Cultural Revolution, various forms of traditional Chinese art, literature, music, film, fashion and architecture have seen a vigorous revival,[472][473] and folk and variety art in particular have sparked interest nationally and even worldwide.[474] China is now the third-most-visited country in the world,[475] with 55.7 million inbound international visitors in 2010.[476] It also experiences an enormous volume of domestic tourism; an estimated 740 million Chinese holidaymakers travelled within the country in October 2012 alone.[477]

Chinese cuisine is highly diverse, drawing on several millennia of culinary history and geographical variety, in which the most influential are known as the "Eight Major Cuisines", including Sichuan, Cantonese, Jiangsu, Shandong, Fujian, Hunan, Anhui, and Zhejiang cuisines.[490] All of them are featured by the precise skills of shaping, heating, colorway and flavoring.[491] Chinese cuisine is also known for its width of cooking methods and ingredients,[492] as well as food therapy that is emphasized by traditional Chinese medicine.[493] Generally, China's staple food is rice in the south, wheat based breads and noodles in the north. The diet of the common people in pre-modern times was largely grain and simple vegetables, with meat reserved for special occasions. And the bean products, such as tofu and soy milk, remain as a popular source of protein.[494] Pork is now the most popular meat in China, accounting for about three-fourths of the country's total meat consumption.[495] While there is also a Buddhist cuisine and an Islamic cuisine.[496] Southern cuisine, due to the area's proximity to the ocean and milder climate, has a wide variety of seafood and vegetables; it differs in many respects from the wheat-based diets across dry northern China. Numerous offshoots of Chinese food, such as Hong Kong cuisine and American Chinese food, have emerged in the nations that play host to the Chinese diaspora.

^Although this is the present meaning of guó, in Old Chinese (when its pronunciation was something like /*qʷˤək/)[36] it meant the walled city of the Chinese and the areas they could control from them.[37]

^Its use is attested from the 6th-century Classic of History, which states "Huangtian bestowed the lands and the peoples of the central state to the ancestors" (皇天既付中國民越厥疆土于先王).[38]

^According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the total area of the United States, at 9,522,055 km2 (3,676,486 sq mi), is slightly smaller than that of China. Meanwhile, the CIA World Factbook states that China's total area was greater than that of the United States until the coastal waters of the Great Lakes was added to the United States' total area in 1996. From 1989 through 1996, the total area of US was listed as 9,372,610 km2 (3,618,780 sq mi) (land area plus inland water only). The listed total area changed to 9,629,091 km2 (3,717,813 sq mi) in 1997 (with the Great Lakes areas and the coastal waters added), to 9,631,418 km2 (3,718,711 sq mi) in 2004, to 9,631,420 km2 (3,718,710 sq mi) in 2006, and to 9,826,630 km2 (3,794,080 sq mi) in 2007 (territorial waters added).

^China's border with Pakistan and part of its border with India falls in the disputed region of Kashmir. The area under Pakistani administration is claimed by India, while the area under Indian administration is claimed by Pakistan.

^The national life expectancy at birth rose from about 31 years in 1949 to 75 years in 2008,[445] and infant mortality decreased from 300 per thousand in the 1950s to around 33 per thousand in 2001.[446]

^"China's Economy Realized a Moderate but Stable and Sound Growth in 2015". National Bureau of Statistics of China. 19 January 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2016. Taking the per capita disposable income of nationwide households by income quintiles, that of the low-income group reached 5,221 yuan, the lower-middle-income group 11,894 yuan, the middle-income group 19,320 yuan, the upper-middle-income group 29,438 yuan, and the high-income group 54,544 yuan. The Gini Coefficient for national income in 2015 was 0.462.

^"China". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000). Boston and New York: Houghton-Mifflin.

^Found in Book 2 of Kautilya's Arthashastra. Book 2 was dated to AD 150 by Thomas R. Trautmann in Kautilya and the Arthasāstra (1971). See Denis Crispin Twitchett, Michael Loewe, John King Fairbank, The Ch'in and Han Empires 221 B.C.-A.D. 220, note 2, pp. 20-21.

^Qiu Xigui (2000). Chinese Writing. English translation of 文字學概論 by Gilbert L. Mattos and Jerry Norman. Early China Special Monograph Series No. 4. Berkeley: The Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. ISBN978-1-55729-071-7.

^ abBodde, Derk. (1986). "The State and Empire of Ch'in", in The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-24327-0.

^"Chinese Civil War". Cultural-China.com. Archived from the original on 12 September 2013. Retrieved 16 June 2013. To this day, since no armistice or peace treaty has ever been signed, there is controversy as to whether the Civil War has legally ended.

^Steven F. Teiser. What is Popular Religion?. Part of: Living in the Chinese Cosmos, Asia for Educators, Columbia University. Extracts from: Stephen F. Teiser. The Spirits of Chinese Religion. In: Religions of China in Practice. Princeton University Press, 1996.

^ abAndré Laliberté. Religion and the State in China: The Limits of Institutionalization. On: Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 40, 2, 3–15. 2011. ISSN1868-4874 (online), ISSN1868-1026 (print). p. 7, quote: «[...] while provincial leaders in Fujian nod to Taoism with their sponsorship of the Mazu Pilgrimage in Southern China, the leaders of Shanxi have gone further with their promotion of worship of the Yellow Emperor (黄帝, Huangdi).»